A Skeleton, a Ghost, and a Wanderer
by AyanamiEraclea
Summary: A story about closure. Zelda waited six years after Manfred died to go collect her things from his room. This is the story of her journey to closure. ZeldaxManfred, ZeldaxAsa, AsaxOC slightly. Warning: Really long.


So, here's something. I'm not used to writing using capitals anymore. Please forgive me. But before I story, here's a brief rant about why I'm done with Jenny Nimmo. Spoilers for Charlie Bone 8 and Harry Potter.

So I'm pissed. Wanna know why I'm pissed? I just bought CotRK 8. And I read CotRK 8.

What the fuck, Jenny? What the fuck? I'm not going to say what you should or should not have done with your characters. They're your characters.

But one of the great things about Harry Potter was that it grew up with its audience. I first started reading Charlie Bone when I was about ten years old. I'm seventeen now and just finished the last book.

Harry Potter had real drama. It started out as (kind-of) a kiddy book, and grew up to be a book for all ages. Charlie Bone just kept the same 9-12 motif, and you know what? It got replaced by Twilight. It got forgotten. Now, us fans held out. We waited when we knew there were only going to be 5, and then we waited when we found out there were going to be 8.

Hero characters died in Harry Potter. Hell, Harry Potter died himself for a chapter or two in Deathly Hallows. Hedwig died. Lupin and Tonks died. Snape, the anti-hero, died. Of course, the villain died, too. But the villain was scary as shit. The villain went around killing motherfuckers. The villain killed some guy who used to mow his parents lawn, just because. This was a scary motherfucker we were talking about.

Hell, Gandalf died in LoTR momentarily and Tolkein was notorious for getting most of his protagonists out unscathed. Boromir died. At the very end of all those books, Aragorn died (I think) in the Fourth Age.

And therin lies the problem. Manfred was a scary motherfucker, but he was a kid. Dagbert was an even scarier motherfucker, but he was also a kid.

I've officially disowned books 5-8, and I've never done that with _any_ series before despite me hating Prisoner of Azkaban and The Phantom Menace with a passion. Count Harken was a laughable villain, anyway, and seemed like an afterthought.

No, the villains in the books I fell in love with in the first place were either much too young or much too old to really be convincing and not kiddy.

Maybe I outgrew this. Maybe you just couldn't keep me interested.

I forgave you when you got rid of Zelda (and I thought it was bullshit as I read 8 that you brought back the fucking boa but not her, and then went and killed her boyfriend for good measure) but I can't forgive this.

Manfred's death was the definition of Dropped a Bridge on Him. Or, Dropped a Wheelchair with a 101-Year-Old-Man on Him. It was disgustingly stupid. It really was. There are things that other authors did that I don't agree with, but come on. Manfred was deep. He was the deepest of all the villains that you didn't turn around and make an anti-hero (cough Dagbert cough). This is how you killed him. Couldn't even bring his girlfriend or his best friend back. Couldn't have him make peace with his mother and die a heroic death or something, anything, even something stupid. No, this had to be this.

I am aware I am totally geeking out like a 40 year old Trekkie pissed over something someone did inevitably. I don't care. I'm mad. I think as someone who's spent money and time on this series, I deserve to be a little pissed. Is it eating my life? No, I've got bigger fish to fry. I just feel like it wasn't fair to Manfred fans. I get that TanMa EXPLODED after book 7. I get that the "good" characters all have bigger fanbases. But we were a big fanbase, too, and I don't think I'm speaking for myself when I say this isn't fair.

So here's a thing I wrote where Zelda's just a smidge more pissed. I added the Alice character again. I don't know why I do that. She's got a bit of a big introduction but she kind of just becomes a sidekick after that. This is Zelda's story, after all. Oh, and thank God for the family trees in the books because I have 2010 ages and that shit's exciting.

**My Skeletons and Ghosts (A Story About Closure)**

**Help, I'm Alive**

It was damned cold. She didn't understand why it was always so damned cold in England, but it was cold again. Of course, she understood it logically, she just didn't understand why whatever deity existed made it that way.

Not that she actually believed in one, anymore, of course.

_When she heard the news, she took a line from Arthur Miller and screamed that God was dead._

Zelda Dobinski. Twenty-three. Aspiring English teacher. Wanderer. Fled from danger when she was young. Regretter.

She shook her long, unkempt black hair out of her face, and became increasingly self-conscious about how dirty it was and how badly she needed a shower in general.

"Alice, try to keep up."

Behind her, Alice Meridian. Seventeen. Runaway. Stowaway. Aspiring English teacher. Fled from hard knocks when she was younger. Regretter.

Alice combed a piece of choppy, greasy red hair behind her ear, and didn't really give a fuck that it was dirty. She'd been dirty before.

"Where the hell are we going, Zelda? You still haven't told me. Are you going to sell me or something?" She pulled a pack of Pall Mall menthol 100s out of her pocket, snapped her fingers, and a quick jolt of light appeared, lighting her cigarette. She gestured at Zelda to take one, and Zelda did.

Zelda didn't start the dirty habit until she found out the news.

_Dr. Bloor's sympathetic, patronizing tone of voice grated her nerves over the phone, and then she exploded._

"_TALK NOT TO ME, FOR I HATH DONE WITH THEE!" slam._

"We're going to pick up my stuff." She said, blowing smoke into the cold November air.

**A Phoenix Died Today**

Zelda Dobinski. Twenty. Before she was a wanderer, she was a person in denial that she needed closure.

She hadn't seen Manfred for about a year before she got the first phone call, from her mother. Then, Dorothy Bloor had called her. Dr. Bloor begged her to come to the funeral, and she politely declined. She was done with it, had been over Manfred for a while before she found out. That was the mantra.

_You have no regrets. You have no regrets. Don't regret Manfred or Asa or the girls or Mum or anybody. You have no regrets. _

She was studying English at Michigan State (although she thought it was hilarious when Inez called her and told her that Manfred had completely done away with her existence by saying she was a math genius now) after leaving (_fleeing)_ England to the United States, paid for by her father, who had disowned her but not completely, and who wanted her to keep her mouth shut so he could keep his comfy familiarity with the Bloors. She had several friends, but no boyfriends, and rumors began to surface that she was a lesbian. She had, at first, calmly brushed them off and told them she wasn't ready to date yet.

"But you've never had a boyfriend in your life, Zel! You can't be a virgin for the rest of your life!" Mimi said indignantly.

"I told you, Meem. I'm not ready yet."

Zelda was so good at hiding that people were suspecting her of hiding something completely unrelated to what she was hiding.

"This isn't the 1940s, Zel! You can have a boyfriend at twenty!"

Yeah, that's what it was. Zelda's puritanical beliefs prevented her from having a boyfriend at twenty. It wasn't like she was having sex in a tower with wild abandon with a boy when she was fifteen years old up until she was seventeen.

She graduated, and that was it. She had no job. Many schools had too many English Lit teachers. She tried to be a drama teacher. Drama was being cut from schools. Then, one day, she got an email from a very weary almost future father-in-law.

_Zelda -_

_Dr. Saltweather has finally given myself and Dorothy permission to clean out Manfred's old room. Dorothy insisted that I request that you come around here and collect the remaining belongings if you would like them. Please email back ASAP._

_-Mr. Bloor_

No longer a doctor, and probably dictated to Dorothy. Zelda sat and thought long and hard. She had a dead-end job waiting tables at a diner, another job bar tending at a social club, yet another job babysitting children and teaching them how to act, no desire to fly to London and a rickety pick-up truck.

_Dr. (?) Bloor -_

_ Please give me a few months to completely uproot my life for a few weeks visiting London to collect my dead lover's things which you have so callously rejected over the years. I think I shall travel a bit first._

So she completely left. Left her tiny one-bedroom in some awful Detroit housing project, left her friends, left the men who called on her frequently, left all of her jobs with no notice. Brought all twelve thousand dollars she had saved up to better her life. Got into her pickup truck, started the ignition, drove out of Detroit.

She looked up at the mirror and saw the old fire that had continued to light her eyes after she fled had died, probably months ago. The fake light that was reborn from it after Manfred died was gone as well. She took a deep breath and kept driving.

**Pretty Girl**

"Excuse me! EXCUSE ME!" Zelda heard from the back of her pickup truck one morning, after sleeping in it in a Walmart parking lot somewhere, she gathered, in Upstate New York, along with a light tapping. Zelda woke with a start and levitated a bobble head into the air as protection. She had no idea where it had come from. She slowly opened the car door with her mind and stepped out.

A dirty, plain-looking girl with red hair and heavy, dark eyebrows stood in front of her wearing very dirty, tattered clothing.

"Excuse you." Zelda said dully. She was in no mood for anymore prostitutes. She had seen enough of them on the street corners and her feminist side secretly seethed.

There was something about this one, though...

"I don't know if you're into women, but you can go into business with me if not! I just need some money to eat, man." The girl looked down at her feet, at the battered sneakers and ripped jeans. She sounded scared and hesitant. Zelda took pity on her.

"How old are you?" The girl's head snapped up.

"What do you fuckin' care, you dirty fuckin' foreigner?" She snapped. Zelda rolled her eyes.

"Clearly not old enough to be running around the streets sleeping with people, I suppose. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say around fifteen or sixteen."

"Seventeen actu-" She fell silent and kicked the dirt.

"Dammit, I always do that." She said half-heartedly. Zelda grinned. The girl, while still being egregiously annoying, was starting to grow on her already.

"What's your name?"

"Again, why would a fuckin' foreigner like you care? Hey, do you have a cigarette?" Zelda rolled her eyes once more and took out a pack of Camels, which the girl grunted at harshly. She took one anyway, and even before Zelda had reached into her pocket for her lighter the cigarette was lit. Her eyes widened.

"How did you do that?" The girl's eyes darted around again.

"I dunno, I kind of just do it. Snap my fingers and bam. Always have been able to, you know. My parents never let me. My parents kicked me out for setting fires, y'know?" Zelda's mind raced. Another endowed?

"Tell me about the Red King?" She blurted out, and then immediately regretted it. (_No regrets_.)

"Who the fuck is that?" Zelda's heart sank.

"I'm just a witch. I don't know how. I think from my Gramma. I saw her fly once. I wish I could fly but my parents scared it out of me." Shit, this one talked too fucking much. But Zelda supposed fires could be useful, and the fires reminded her of somebody important...

_Stop that._ _You have no regrets, remember?_

"Get in the fucking car." The girl looked fearful.

"Hey, man, I don't want any trouble." Zelda rolled her eyes once more and picked the girl up by her arms. Telekinesis, after all, was an incredibly useful skill.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, YOU GODDAMN BITCH?" The girl was dragged into the passenger seat and the door shut. Zelda lit a cigarette, started the ignition, and began to drive.

The girl yelled and swore and threatened to set the car on fire for a little bit and then fell silent. Zelda turned to her at the red light after she had quieted.

"You never told me your name. I'm Zelda Dobinski, and you aren't going to fucking hook anymore." The girl turned to her with anger in her eyes, but it slowly melted and became a tearful gratefulness.

"Alice. Alice Meridian. Why do you care so much?" The ghetto accent was dropped, and a worldly, intelligent young woman could be heard beneath the bitterness.

"Those fires you do. They remind me of my boyfriend." Zelda said.

_Don't fucking cry in front of the kid._

"Oh? Where is he now?"

"Dead. We're going to go get his things."

**Accidents**

They drove around the Midwest again for a bit, smoking pot with various people, almost becoming cult members, and meeting men along the way that they tricked into giving them money. Finally, they went to O'Hare Airport and bought two plane tickets to London. Zelda quietly thanked God that she was a citizen of England for once and that Alice had her passport.

On the flight, Zelda fell asleep. She had a dream she was seventeen again and that she had chosen to fight with Manfred. Then her sleeping thoughts turned to the things that happened before she left.

_"Manfred, darling. You're bleeding again."_

_ "I'm always bleeding in this place anymore. This place is bleeding."_

Small voices, small conversations, small memories.

_"It's like you want me to fucking leave here and never come back, Manfred Ezekiel Bloor!"_

_ "I don't really give a damn what you do, Zelda Elisabetha Dobinski! Go out the damn door! Aren't your cousins Bloor's age by now? I can use them instead, just like I used you! Fucking whore..."_

He cried, of course, as he said those awful things. He could terrorize everyone, even Asa, but he could never terrorize her. He didn't have the heart to do it. He had loved her too deeply, although she didn't believe it after a certain point. It wasn't after he hurt her, though.

_She clutched her face, which showed a mixture of incredulity, pure shock, despair, and fury. A sickeningly long pause followed the slap that pierced the cold air of the tower. _

_ "Zelda. Zel. Look at me. Please, God. Please. Please look at me in the eyes. Zelda, I'm so sorry."_

_ "No, you're not." She whispered thickly._

_ "Zelda, I would never hurt you. You know that. Not on purpose..."_

_ "What do you call that, Bloor?" Bloor. She hadn't called him that since they were really small and she hated him after he dumped slime on her head from the gutter._

_ "Come on, Zelda. I was a little mad, that's all. No need for last na-"_

_ And she had slapped him at that moment, causing him to grab her by the arms. A searing pain shot through them and she ripped them away._

_ "You burned me, you fucking bastard!" Manfred's eyes widened._

_ "How?" He looked down at his glowing hands._

_ "Zelda, I honestly don't know..." But she never heard the rest of his words because she was already halfway down the tower, sobbing and carrying on loudly._

_ Lucretia Yewbeam had sympathy for no one. She screamed at Zelda to go to bed and Zelda did, crying herself to sleep._

Tapping. Tapping was the next thing she felt. On her face.

"Zelda. ZELDA. The flight's over. Jesus, you slept through nearly the whole thing. Aren't you hungry?" Zelda turned her groggy eyes to Alice, who held a bag of Lays and a bottle of water.

"Not hungry." She said sleepily. She stood up and collected her bag.

They left the plane and exited the airport into the city.

"Shouldn't we rent a car?" Alice asked, her eyes darting to every big tourist trap in her peripheral vision.

"No, it's close. That's how I escaped so quickly. But first we're going to go stay somewhere." They wandered around London for a while longer until they arrived at an inn they deemed passable. They dropped off their things and showered, and Alice was watching TV when Zelda left the bathroom all dressed up, or at least as dressed up as she could be.

"We're going out." She said firmly. Alice glanced up from the TV.

"Why? The Boardwalk Empire episode I missed is on!" Zelda rolled her eyes and threw Alice a skirt and a nice blouse.

"You can drink legally now, right?" It was true; Alice had turned eighteen in the time they had traveled around the Midwest. Alice jumped up.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Get dressed. We're going to a pub." Alice excitedly got dressed and they walked outside into the late October night.

The pub they chose was brightly lit and buzzing with excitement. Halloween was close, and everyone was helping the bartender decorate. Zelda and Alice spied a spot near the corner and called the man over.

"Jack and Coke on the rocks, please." Alice said cheerily. Zelda laughed.

"Isn't she cute? I just want something simple. Screwdriver, I guess." The bartender smiled and quickly got their drinks. They joined in with the others, singing top 40 songs and putting up bats made of plastic garbage bags. They were buzzed, they were happy, and Zelda let her memories of why she came to England melt away.

All of a sudden, she saw a face. She figured she was drunk, but there was no mistaking the handsomely beast-like face of Asa Pike, even though she hadn't seen him in six years.

"I'll be right back." She whispered to Alice, but Alice wasn't listening. She was busy chatting up the bearded young guitarist who played Morissey's greatest hits in a wasted medley. She strode over to her grown-up best friend and shook him by the shoulder.

"Asa?" He turned to her and nearly dropped his drink.

"Bloody fucking Christ, Zelda! I thought you were dead!" He threw his lanky arms around her and gripped her in a tight hug. She laughed.

"Why would I be dead?" Asa looked at her through tomato eyes.

"Dunno, Manfred never wanted to talk about you and you were never good at math." She laughed again. God, she was so drunk.

"Here, c'mere and meet Alice." She dragged him over to Alice, who was still talking to the guitarist, Adam, begging him to play Suedehead or something.

"Alice, this is my best friend Asa." Alice waved and giggled into her drink, probably her second or third by now, and Zelda all of a sudden sobered up for a second and noticed.

"Hey, why don't we all go back to the hotel?" She suggested. After all, the last few hours at the bar had been a blur of incoherent things she would not remember, but she wanted to remember Asa for forever.

They walked back to the inn, Zelda mostly supporting Alice up the stairs and onto the first bed. Then, she and Asa sat on the second bed. They hadn't been more than buzzed, truthfully, and Zelda supposed the "drunkenness" had been caused by the euphoria caused by seeing Asa.

"How are you though, Zelda? Really." There was a mixture of concern and a long-lost heartbreak in his eyes.

_"You didn't sleep with him, did you? Please tell me you didn't sleep with Asa, you pathetic slut!" He threw the book across the room..._

"I'm all right. I was trying to find a job when Dr. Bloor contacted me. Then I drove around a little bit, picked up Alice, and came here to get my things out of the old room." Small talk. Tension.

_"I didn't, Manfred. Maybe if you paid attention to me, our clever little trick to make you think we did it wouldn't have worked as well as it did."_

"Oh, that's good. Are you staying long?" Zelda shrugged.

"Dunno."

_"Do you have FEELINGS for him?"_

_ "Of course not, Manfred. I only love you, I swear."_

"You should see everyone. Your cousins really miss you. Maybe we can go stay there for a while. Charlie Bone is getting married to Olivia Vertigo, and Silk's a queer like we always said."

"Oh?"

_"Olivia, I need a favor."_

_ "Fuck you, Zelda."_

_ "I'm serious. I'm running on borrowed time. I can't outwardly rebel against them, but I don't want to hurt you all anymore, so I'm leaving. I just need to talk to you...I need to know that you love Charlie Bone and would support him through everything. I want you to be my successor."_

_ "I'm not even endowed."_

_ "You are. I can tell." Olivia walked away. She was too young for love anyway, Zelda supposed._

"Yeah, apparently Bone found him and that violin guy fucking somewhere in the school like two years ago. I forget. But they were seniors."

"Lovely."

_"Zelda." Asa's voice was husky, alluring, caring, beautiful. He moved closer to her._

_ "Asa, you either all of a sudden became a great actor or you really want something to do with this."_

"Torsson and Emma are engaged as well. They're having a double wedding. Idith got with Joshua after his mother committed suicide, and Inez is with that damned drowner. Naren's studying in China. Dorcas killed herself, too. The Onimous's kid started Bloor's. Billy Raven drives. Lysander Sage is some hotshot lawyer..." His voice trailed off as he listed the epilogues of everyone she had left behind. They both knew what the other was thinking.

_"Zelda, I love you."_

_ "I can't love you, Asa. You're more unpredictable than he is."_

_ "I never fucking hit you, Zel."_

"I'm glad the twins have good boyfriends." She said absentmindedly.

"Hey, remember when we tricked Manfred into thinking we fucked?" Zelda bit her lip.

"Remember how well that turned out?" She said, voice quivering.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said sharply, and without warning crashed his lips with hers, Alice still passed out on the bed...

_Zelda couldn't be torn, not like this. Never like this. She couldn't love them both. She didn't love them both. But some nagging voice in the back of her head told her she was in love with the wrong person._

_ "Zel, kiss me." Asa was all of a sudden ethereal, giving off an angelic glow juxtaposed against his devilish face. She moved her face close to his..._

...Asa moved on top of her. He'd done this before, had lost his virginity after leaving Bloor's, had wanted Zelda and thought he deserved her more than Manfred ever did...

_...and closed the gap, moving her mouth against Asa's inexperienced mouth. Asa had only kissed a 100 year old woman before this, and he wasn't ready, and she didn't want to hurt him, and, and, and..._

_ .._.Zelda slid underneath him like a pro, and pushed her legs against his. His legs had finally caught up in length to Manfred's, and for once she could pretend she had them both as she unbuttoned the flannel shirt he wore...

..._and she didn't have much of a choice in the matter, she could tell Manfred. She wanted to trick him into appreciating her and Asa took the game a little too seriously..._

...exposing a toned chest and a flash of boxer shorts. Her blouse came off next, and then her bra, and damn, she didn't know, she couldn't disrespect Manfred's memory like this, but it's not like he ever respected her...

_...They're noses bumped together awkwardly..._

...and all of a sudden she realized she didn't want this. Just like she didn't want it years ago. Neither did he, apparently, she realized as she glanced at his trousers. He laughed sheepishly...

_ ...and she realized she didn't want this. She never wanted this. Neither did he, apparently, and he laughed nervously. _

_ "Sorry, Zel. Emotions just got the best of me, I guess. I guess we're both just really, really pissed off at Manfred."_

_ "Yeah." And they left, no harm no foul._

"That doesn't usually happen." He chuckled as they got their clothes back on.

"I dunno, Asa, maybe it's because I don't remember how to do this. I haven't had sex since I left England." He laughed.

"Now I don't believe that at all." He sat back on the bed and relaxed a little.

"Can I crash with you guys tonight? I'll sleep on the floor." And all of a sudden he was the 16 year old boy she remembered_._

"Sure, and then we'll go visit my aunt in the morning." She threw him a pillow, turned off the light, and fell asleep.

**Teacher**

The next morning, Asa and Zelda had completely blocked out the previous night's actions and neither said a word to Alice, who was somewhat excited to meet more "magic people", as she called them.

"OK, so explain this Red King crap to me again and convince me that there isn't some inbreeding somewhere."

"Well, I agree with you, Alice." Asa said, sipping his coffee on their way up to the Brankos' neighborhood on the underground.

"There had to be some inbreeding somewhere. But that's not the point. The point is, the Red King had 10 kids, and we're all descended from them one way or another. Zelda from Olga, me from Cafal."

"He was African, though."

"He came to the North during the Anglo-Saxon period." Zelda said absentmindedly. She began drumming her fingers against the windowpane. She just wanted to see her family again. She hadn't had anybody, not _really,_ since she left. Not until Alice came around. Still, Alice couldn't compare to the comfort that Asa had brought, and Asa couldn't compare to the comfort she knew she'd feel after seeing the girls and Auntie again, and maybe her mother.

The train stopped.

"We're here. Right outside our part of the city. We can walk the rest of the way to the Heights."

Zelda and Asa told more stories about Bloor's and the Red King on the walk, and Alice shared a bit about her past. Apparently, a boyfriend had humiliated her so she set his bed on fire. She wasn't charged with anything but she was hospitalized for a few weeks and after that she ran away from home, where she tried hooking but could never work up the courage to do more than blow someone. They were so preoccupied with stories that they accidentally passed the address.

"Shit. We have to go back." Zelda said softly, and Asa and Alice burst into laughter. They backtracked a few houses to a very strange looking house with flowers all over the yard.

"This can't be it. It's too cheery." Zelda said. She glanced at the address. 2014. This was it. She led the way to the door and knocked.

"I'll get it!" Idith Branko. Nineteen. Blue hair. Blue eyes. Bright yellow sunglasses. Bright everything. Her boyfriend, Joshua Tilpin, followed, accidentally dragging some spoons from the dinner table with him.

"Joshua! Control your bloody endowedment like the rest of us, if you'd please!" The shrill voice of Theadora Branko rang through the hallway. She was exasperated from cooking all day. She was exasperated by a lot of things since she left her husband. Still, her love for her daughters outweighed said exasperation.

Idith opened the door and she knew that Josh was shocked, too, because the spoons immediately dropped when he saw the woman at the door.

"Mum. Mum. MUM!" Idith yelled. She ran to retrieve her mother.

"Mom, it's Zelda! Zelda's back!" She ran back to the door. Her mother nearly dropped the chicken.

"Can't be. It's impossible..." She strode over to the door and her eyes widened and then she burst into sobs.

"Oh, Zelda! I've missed you so fiercely, darling! And Asa!" Her eyes fell on Alice.

"And who's this?" She said with a smile.

"A friend, Auntie." They were all dragged into the house and forced to sit at the dinner table.

"Tell me everything, Zelda." And Zelda did. She told her aunt about her college years, how she couldn't find a job doing what she loved, having to break up bar fights, the small children she taught while babysitting, driving around aimlessly, picking up Alice, driving around aimlessly some more, coming to England, walking around aimlessly, finding Asa, drinking, coming here.

"So, you're a witch." Dora said to Alice.

"Yes." Alice said quickly, distantly. She felt left out, and young, and inexperienced. Idith caught her eye.

"Come on, love. You can come listen to music with Joshua and I. We're hipsters now, and it's very exciting." Idith and her giggling boyfriend dragged half the dinner table with them as they ran upstairs, and Alice smiled.

"I'm a hipster, too." She said, and ran upstairs with them. Dora smiled.

"Ah, to be young and in love." She turned to Asa.

"Haven't you found someone, yet, darling?" She asked. Zelda and Asa glanced quickly at each other.

"No, I haven't. But I'm looking." Zelda quickly changed the subject.

"Is Mama around?" She asked brightly. Dora turned away.

"Asa, haven't you told her?" She asked, voice trembling. Zelda's heart sank to her feet.

_No. No no no no no no no nonononono. Not my mother. Please..._

"I didn't want to upset her." Asa stared at his hands. Zelda howled.

"Zelda, she died of grief. We didn't know what to do for her. This nonsense with Ezekiel Bloor tore this family apart and she couldn't take it. The feelings were only aggravated when you left."

"Could no one contact me? Dr. fucking Bloor told me to come get my fucking seventeen year old girl shit out of Manfred's smelly fucking hovel of a room but nobody could tell me my fucking mother was dead?" She was pissed, she was upset, she was fucking everything at once. The chairs around the table, knives out of the drawer, plates on the table, all flew around her and then lunged at the walls, the plates breaking and the knives getting stuck. Cabinets flew open and clanged against each other. Zelda's sobs rang through the whole house and the three younger ones bolted downstairs to see what was wrong.

"Mom, did you tell her about Auntie?" Idith shouted over the sobs.

"Yes, and she's not handling it well!" Dora used her own telekinesis to close all of the cabinets and wrenched the remaining plates from Zelda's control while Idith gained control of the chairs. For Josh's part, he used magnetism to catch all the knives skillfully.

"About time you used it for something good." Idith said, breathing heavily and poking Joshua in the arm. All eyes were on Zelda.

She dropped into a chair and put her head in her hands.

"I just want to know why nobody told me. Nobody even bothered to tell me." Asa put a hand on her shoulder.

"We wanted to. So many times. Your aunt especially. Your aunt wanted you at the funeral but your father didn't even let her in, and she was her sister." Zelda turned to Dora.

"Is that true?"

"Yes. I wanted to tell you, Zelda. I really did, but you seemed so happy in your new life, in your new college. I had Naren send her shadows to see. I didn't want to spoil it for you, love." Tears steamed down her face and her voice quivered.

"I didn't want you to come home and face the fact that the two most important people in your life are gone." She sank into the chair and sobbed with Zelda. Asa sat down next to her and Alice sat down next to him. Idith and Joshua quietly went upstairs. After the two women calmed down, Zelda dried her eyes and turned to Dora.

"Where's Innni?" She asked. Dora sighed in exasperation.

"Ran away with Dagbert again to live with old Mrs. Kettle at her shop. I love Katya but she can't continue like this, not after her fall. She fell down the steps trying to move an ancient shield, you see. I've been trying to get them to come back here but I think that Inez thinks we don't accept Dagbert, that we see him as a traitor. She thinks we love Josh better." She sighed again. Zelda stood and turned to Asa and Alex.

"I'm going." She said firmly. Asa stood behind her.

"Me too, I suppose." Alice stood indignantly.

"Well, I'm going to try and help, too!" Zelda and Asa looked at each other and shook their heads.

"No, Alice. Stay here." Asa said.

"It's too dangerous for you to be seen with me." Zelda said. Alice crossed her arms.

"Can you please stop treating me like I'm a child? I'm eighteen years old." I'm having fun with Idith and Josh but I honestly think I can do some good." Zelda sighed and then smiled.

"All right, then." Dora smiled and grasped Zelda's hands in her own.

"Thank you, Zelda. Thank you so, so much." The younger woman nodded and the three of them walked out the door into the cold November air.

As they walked through all of the expensive neighborhoods, they noticed changes everywhere. The Vertigo house had a new addition, and a young couple had moved into Beth's house with their newborn. They stopped by Asa's old house momentarily to see that it was completely in ruins ("Good riddance to my childhood, I'd say!").

They walked rather quickly past the Dobinski mansion, where his father's old mistress (his new wife, Zelda supposed) peered at them through the second story window.

They reached Charlie Bone's street then, or at least where he used to live.

"He moved into some house on Diamond where his parents lived but they all moved into the city after graduating Bloor's." Asa informed Zelda.

_Manfred could have had this._ Zelda thought to herself angrily.

Into the city they walked, with its bells and whistles, onto Cathedral Street. Zelda and Asa were too busy talking about old memories to notice that Alice was missing from their side. Asa's ears immediately perked up and Zelda's head snapped around frantically.

"Alice? Alice?" They bolted down Cathedral Street, grabbing every young woman on the street that even looked like her. Asa looked in every shop window until he found himself at Ingledew's...or what used to be Ingledew's. The store had been renamed "Yewbeam's". Sure enough, when he peered into the window, he saw Alice browsing the old books on Julia Ingledew's shelves and chatting with Emma Tolly and Tancred Torsson.

"Oh for fuck's sake." He muttered under his breath, running to find Zelda.

"She's at Ingeldew's!" He panted at her.

"Damn." They sprinted to the bookshop, and without thinking Zelda burst through the door.

Tancred Torsson, now aged twenty-one, was built and physically imposing nowadays. Upon seeing Zelda's face, a look of horrified anger crossed his face, which turned into furious suspicion as he turned around and grabbed Alice by the forearms rather tightly.

"You're working for _her!_ Come to rebuild the Bloor empire, haven't you?" He roared, a fierce wind blowing through the bookstore.

"Back the _fuck_ off, bro!" Alice shrieked. A flash of light illuminated the store and Tancred yanked his hands back, which had been singed up to the wrist.

"What's this? Fire? Related to Manfred, aren't you?" He yelled.

"I DON'T EVEN HAVE THE SLIGHTEST IDEA WHO THE FUCK MANFRED EVEN IS!" She screamed. Emma frantically ran around to the front of the counter.

"Please, everyone! This is a bookstore! Mr. Yewbeam and my aunt will be back shortly!" Zelda made a mental note that the two sickeningly sweet lovebirds got their happy ending, and then got up into Tancred's face.

"The bloody _fuck_ is wrong with you?"

"Why have you come here? You know after you ran away nobody on either side ever wanted to see you again! You're a disgrace!"

"Do you think I don't feel that way about myself, Torsson? I get it, I'm a pathetic fucking waste of space. You see her, though? American. Not even fucking _related_ to the Red King. That fire she reacted with? She's descended from an old coven living in Salem before the witch trials. She's a witch, but she has _nothing_ to do with any of this, you prick!" Asa was holding onto a clearly stricken Alice.

"Asa, can you let go of me, please? I would like to say something." Asa let go.

"Zelda. I'm an adult. Even before I was an adult, I fended for myself on the streets for two whole years before we met. I don't need anyone to fight my damn battles. And as for _you."_ She flourished at Tancred a bit.

"I don't know you. You don't know me. You seemed like a pretty swell guy before you started getting grabby. I'm not trying to start trouble. I don't know what happened here. All I know is that there was some kind of magic war going on and people died, and you guys won, and Zelda's boyfriend died. You all seem to be doing pretty well with yourselves. Zelda's just trying to move on. I think you should give her some space." Zelda bit her tongue to keep from crying.

"She's right about all of that, you know. That was the most adult conversation she's had since I've known her. Most of the time she talks about booze and fucking." Asa said solemnly. Zelda sighed. Alice was an adult, even though she was an immature one. She just wanted to help Alice...

_"Beth, you have to let me take care of you! We have to stick together or we're all going to be thrown under the bus!"_

_ "I'm fourteen years old, for Christ's sake! That's how old you were when you joined up with HIM!"_

_ "I remember being fourteen, Beth, it wasn't too long ago! I remember how eager I was to ally myself with people I thought could get me far! I was also very capable! Now, I'm not so sure if this is what I wanted..." She sighed and changed the subject. "Now, today we're going to warm up with the pencil box, and then go into dealing with heavier objects, and objects made of metal if we have time."_

_ ...Beth was horrified as the bird Emma Tolly lifted her into the air..._

_ "Zelda, why are you leaving?" Beth had walked in on her packing only her most important __things to take with her, had somehow known about this even though Zelda hadn't told her._

_ "I can't be here anymore, Beth. I need to get out before I see bloodshed."_

_ "YOU SAID YOU'D TAKE CARE OF ME!" _

_ ...Beth's lifeless body was placed in a field by the airport, showing Manfred's cruel, vengeful brutality..._

"Zelda?" Asa's concerned voice snapped her out of the demonic memory of her failure with Beth. She looked at Tancred.

"Apologize to her." She growled angrily. "We haven't come to ruin your quaint little life with you cute little bookshop girlfriend. I've come to see how thoroughly you've destroyed my life." She locked eyes with Asa and Alice, who still stood close to each other as if they felt the need to defend each other should Tancred become angry again. When no sudden apology was made, she laughed mirthlessly.

"Let's go." She strode over to the door and just as her hand grasped the door, she heard a quivering voice behind her.

"Zelda, wait." Emma said softly. When Zelda looked back, she saw an incredible amount of remorse in both of their eyes. She still did not turn around fully.

"What?" She snapped, although her voice was softer.

"I am so sorry this happened to you. I am so sorry you were put into a position that caused you to have to choose between your own survival and the people you loved deeply. I am so sorry for any mistrust, suspicion, anger, and contempt that was spread among all of us because a sick old man wanted discord and nothing all. We should have stuck together because we're all endowed, and I am so sorry we didn't. I am so sorry that you had to come back to this place, have everything thrown at you at once, and then be treated so horribly. And I forgive you for anything and everything you did for Manfred at Bloor's. Because we were kids." Emma's eyes watered, and she looked at Tancred, who clearly had more to add.

"I'm sorry, too. I forgot that you were seventeen when you left. I forgot that we're not even that old and we've all weathered this. I forgot that you went through hell just like we did. I forgot that Manfred's death might not have been as justified as I thought at the time. I forgot that we were all kids, too, and that we were all pawns in a game created by and for adults. Now we're the adults, and instead of letting everything go and starting new, so that I don't have the bitterness that Ezekiel Bloor clearly had, I had to bring out old hatred, and take it out on someone who had nothing to do with it. I'm sorry, too, Zelda. And I mean that." They could not see Zelda's face, but they somehow knew there were tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Torsson, Emma. You're all right." She said thickly. With that, the three people in Yewbeam's bookshop that didn't really belong there, not children anymore but only now slowly starting to let go of childhood pain, walked out of the bookstore towards Pinimy Street and Mrs. Kettle's shop.

The shop was still as tiny as Asa had remembered it, he pointed out to Zelda, who just thought it was an eyesore. She didn't know what had changed her over the years. Seventeen year old Zelda would have appreciated the style of the shop. Now, the ugliness was just distracting to her.

"They live _here?_"

"In the flat above the shop." Asa said earnestly. Zelda made some sort of retching sound.

"Oh, stop. It looks cozy!" Alice said, stepping forward. She looked behind her at her two companions, standing still as a tree on a windless night.

"Coming?" She asked. Asa and Zelda looked at each other.

"We don't know what's going to happen in there. Dagbert and I don't really like each other." Zelda nodded.

"And I'm pretty sure Inez thinks I'm dead." Alice scrunched up her mouth.

"Well, didn't we resolve things between Zelda and Tancred and Emma? I'm sure you can fix things with Dagbert."

"Tanc and Emma already trusted me because I helped them defeat Dagbert before I left like Zelda did."

"This is so dumb. I was attacked so that we could come here and now you guys won't even go inside. What's the problem?" She looked at Zelda.

"I was just thinking. Back there, when we were at the shop, you were honest-to-goodness helpful. I didn't think you were going to be, but you were. I should have you around every time I get treated like vermin." She stepped forward and motioned to Asa, who rolled his eyes and walked forward as well.

Walking inside, they took notice of the volume of things that Mrs. Kettle had made, which was a great deal, especially swords. Then, they heard the rough voice of a woman who had aged quickly.

"How can I help you today?" She said gruffly. She had trouble walking across the room and had to use a cane, but she had a knowing smile.

"We're not here to buy anything, Mrs. Kettle." Zelda said clearly. Katya Kettle smiled wider.

"You must be Zelda. They're upstairs hiding. They really haven't left the flat for a while except to eat." Zelda nodded.

"Thank you. Asa, Alice, I think your helpfulness ends here. I have to have a private chat with my cousin." They nodded.

When she walked upstairs, she heard the familiar, frantic scrambling of teenagers who were up to no good, like she and Manfred had done years ago. She knocked brusquely on the door. No answer.

"Dagbert Endless, get your arse out of there so I may speak with my cousin." No answer. Zelda rapped on the door impatiently.

"Inez Elisabeta Branko, if you don't open this door this instant I will blow it off!" The doorknob turned quickly and out scurried a fully grown, weedy, dark-humored Dagbert Endless. He looked shocked and indignant at the same time.

"You!" He exclaimed. Zelda shoved him aside.

"Me. You both are leaving very shortly. If I were _you_, Dagbert Endless, I would gather every pathetic belonging I owned that isn't in this room. I would do it quickly, and I would not eavesdrop. Oh, and it's very nice to meet you. My name is Zelda Dobinski. You seem like a charming boy. Now, run along and get your things." Still paralyzed with shock, Dagbert stole a quick glance at Inez.

"Well, what are you just standing there for? Go!" Zelda barked. In the blink of an eye, he was gone..

Zelda walked into the messy room and sat on the unmade bed next to her cousin, whose eyes were wide with shock.

"You're dead." She said blankly.

"I bet Manfred would have loved everyone to think that." Inez shook her head.

"No, it wasn't Manfred. But that's beside the point." She added quickly. She looked like she was about to cry.

"Where WERE you?" I would have loved to have you here, especially lately!"

"I fled like a coward, Inni. I am so sorry I left. Clearly you needed me here." By this time, Inez was sobbing.

"When you left and Beth was killed there was so much pressure on me and Iddi to replace you! Then, when Ezekiel and Manfred met their end we had to wait for the dust to clear! Mama lost everything and we had a lot of trouble finishing high school! Iddi fell for Joshua, who was a respectable, Bloor-supporting boy and I fell for the great stinking traitor! Now we all hate each other and...and...and..." She was so hysterical she couldn't continue and Zelda held onto her until she calmed down. Inez realized that she was carrying on and abruptly dried her eyes.

"But what have you been doing, then, if you weren't dead?" She asked, eager to change the subject.

"Went to school. Wandered a bit. Came back. That's not why I'm here, Inez." Inez bit her lip nervously and looked wistfully at the door.

"You didn't have to scare him, you know." She said ruefully.

"Of course I did. I had to talk to you."

"I bet my mother sent you." Inez snapped.

"Don't disrespect your mother. She has been doing her damndest to keep the four of you safe-"

"By letting Idith and Josh have a go at Dagbert constantly?"

"Now, I don't know either of them very well. Josh and Dagbert, I mean, but you know Idith has a go at everyone except you and I imagine Joshua's the same. Hell, they probably would have had a go at me if they weren't so shocked that I wasn't dead. But your sister loves you very much and really wants you to come home. She didn't say so, but I could tell. She looks lost without you." Inez snorted.

"It's true!" Zelda said.

"She knows Dagbert has had depression issues his entire life, from the thing with his dad to having to betray us. We've been trying to help him, maybe get him a therapist, but I've only got this job at the grocery that Amy Bone gave me and Dagbert can only tend bar during the late nights and play music at coffee shops during the day." Zelda nodded.

"I understand it's hard, Inni."

"We all used to be best friends, you know. We stuck together, even when we scared out of our minds, when things started to turn badly for us. Now, Josh refuses to be civil with him because he's some kind of traitor, and Idith is acting like she's disappointed with me."

"Why do you care?"

"Because she's part of me, Zelda! We were the same zygote until it split! It's _science!_ As for Josh and Dagbert, they were really close and now all Dagbert does is brood around and punch things." Zelda put an arm around her.

"Listen to me, Inez Elisabeta. You're my favorite. Out of you and Idith, you're my favorite. I love her dearly, would die for her, like some of her traits a lot. But I like you more. You were her shadow for the longest time. You did what everybody wanted you to do." Inez nodded.

"I was the same person when I was younger, much younger than you. First, I was my father's shadow. I did what he wanted me to do, unfailingly, until I started thinking for myself." Inez's eyes widened.

"Is that why you left?"

"I was seventeen years old. I was almost grown, but not quite. If I had been mature, perhaps I would have joined Charlie Bone and helped stop the chaotic evil from spreading any further. I thought they were going to kill me. That's still no excuse." There was a long pause, and then Zelda continued.

"The thing is, though, at the time I ran away, I was still very deeply in love."

"With Manfred."

"Yes. My love should have guided me in making him realize that what he was doing was barbaric, inhumane, and wrong in general. They were all wrong. _We_ were all wrong, and I ran away. I left Manfred on his own. I left no one for him to turn to except Asa. Now look what's happened to him, and look what's happened to me."

"I still don't get what you're trying to tell me."

"I had your deep, deep love for Dagbert, for Manfred, and I had your deep sense of what's right and wrong, and I had your beautiful way of following your heart even when it's irrational. I ran away from my problems, like you are, and I _didn't_ stand by the people I cared about, like you do. I don't have your resolve. I don't have your strength, or your willpower. Running away didn't help me one bit. You have Dagbert and you're standing by him, yes, but you're still running away from all the other people that love you. They all care about you very deeply, do you know that?"

"Then why do they take the piss all the time?"

"Like I said, Idith and Josh are pretty much assholes. But they care a lot about you, and Dagbert, deep down. The two of you need to come home before you lose them completely." Inez looked deeply into Zelda's eyes.

"Fine. But you have to promise me something." Zelda looked startled.

"Sure."

"Promise you won't leave again. Don't go to France or Spain or America or Germany or wherever you were. Don't go anywhere. We need you. Mama needs you. You remind her of Auntie. I need you, Idith needs you, the boys need you." Zelda sighed. She contemplated for a moment, but there was only one real answer to that, an answer she should have made years ago...

_"Stay with me, Zelda. Please. I need you, Asa needs you, my dad needs you. We need you to keep everything together, please. Zelda, I love you. Please don't go to the States. Don't go anywhere."_

"Of course I will." Inez grinned.

"All right then, that's settled. If Idith and Josh give me anymore shit, I can get _you_ to come to _me._" Zelda laughed.

"Good deal." She hugged Inez tightly.

"I love you to death, you know, and it broke my heart to leave you." Inez squirmed around.

"I love you, too, but your breasts are crushing me and I have to pack." She said in a muffled voice. Zelda let go and helped her pack the few things she had.

When they opened the door, they saw Dagbert and Asa kneeling at the door.

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" The two women said at the same time. Dagbert and Asa looked quickly at each other and ran downstairs.

"Looks like they're friends now." Zelda said with a smile. She looked at Inez warmly.

"He's very cute. Nice long hair." Inez blushed.

They made the trek back to the Branko house. When they walked through the door, there was a long silence, broken by Dagbert.

"Josh, man. I'm really sorry about what happened here, and I miss you. And Inez misses her sister. And Zelda scares the shit out of me. Let's be friends again, eh?" Dagbert looked at the floor as he spoke. Josh looked long and hard at his best friend, and then his face broke into a true grin.

"Of course, mate." Then, the four of them ran at each other and had a rather large, cheesy group hug. Zelda smiled at how heartwarming it was, while Asa retched.

That night, around the dinner table, the four old friends and their three new companions sat around the big table in Theodora Branko's modern kitchen and reminisced about old times over a thick, hearty stew that Zelda helped her aunt cook.

For the first time in five years, Zelda felt safe. Right. At home. Warm. Accepted. Mature.

**Catharsis (Conclusion)**

3:32 AM, Monday. Three weeks later. Everyone in the house had somewhere to go in a few hours except Zelda (who was trying to find a teaching job), Alice (who would start fresh at a new high school in a week and had to get caught up), and Dora (who took care of the house). Inez and Idith would wake up at 8 in the morning to commute to their school, where Inez studied English and Idith studied Psychology. Josh went to his school for organic chemistry at the same time Inez and Idith did. Asa already had a job as a veterinary assistant, but didn't have to be at work until 10. Dagbert, right now, was probably leaving one job tending bar at an upscale pub (an oxymoron if Zelda had ever heard one) to come sleep for three hours, and then he would wake up at seven to go serve coffee at a quaint little hipster coffee shop, guitar wrapped around his body.

Seeing as she had nowhere to go in the morning, Zelda felt she had no reason to sleep. So, at 3:32 in the morning, she walked downstairs and peered into the kitchen.

There sat Theodora Branko, in a pink fuzzy bathrobe with her head in her hands. Scattered around the table were several envelopes, presumably bills. Zelda's heart sank for her aunt as she walked in. Dora looked up at her.

"Oh. Zelda. Did you need something?" Her eyes were puffy and red.

"Came down for a drink of water. Are you all right, Auntie?" Dora quickly wiped her eyes.

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm fine. Just worried about things is all. The mortgage. The electric. Idith's college. The pantry being full." Zelda sank into the chair next to her, her mind made up.

"I'll help." She said firmly. Her aunt's eyes widened.

"And how will you do that?" Zelda steepled her fingers and took a deep breath.

_"Zelda, I'm very disappointed in you. I thought you'd have the courage to stand by your convictions, but I guess I was wrong. However, I'm willing to make you a deal."_

"Daddy gave me conditions when I ran. I would get my inheritance, in full, if I stayed and fought Charlie Bone and his friends to the bitter, bitter end."

_"This is what we were made to do, Zelda. Fight. Destroy. It's the only life this family has ever known, you know that. You knew what your future was supposed to be, and if you keep that future, you keep your inheritance." She remained stoic. Her father would not break her. Not this time._

"If I worked with the Yewbeams, I would be cut off completely."

_"You cannot fight with them. You cannot fight your father, your future husband, your convictions. I will cut you off. You will be no daughter of mine."_

"But if I ran, I would get ¾ of my inheritance right away, a considerable sum of money. Plus, I'm an only child, of course. My mother convinced him. It was one of the last acts of love he had for Mum, before _she_ took over."

_"Now, your mother and I have discussed."_

_ "And your whore?" Her father, absolutely broken by this supposed betrayal by his daughter and only child, could only look sadly at her._

_ "Please don't call Lydia that, love."_

_ "She is, though." She grumbled. Her father cleared his throat._

_ "Your mother and I discussed this. We both agree that this is very, very hard on you. Your mother wants a chance for you to live outside of this. So you will get a large part of your inheritance to go begin a new life in the United States. You can go to college. You can buy a nice house, nice family. I want you to make a good decision, Zelda."_

She shook the memory of the last conversation she ever had with her father out of her head.

"Anyway, I already spent some on some modest schooling, but I think I have plenty left to support this family until everyone is done with school and has a stable job, and then some." She said brightly. Dora shook her head.

"No, Zel. That's your money. That's for whatever you want to use it for." Zelda laughed bitterly.

"What am I going to use it for, Auntie? Tour of Europe, alone? My husband and kids? A car? A big house? Auntie, I wanted all of those things a long time ago! What am I going to do with them now that he's dead and I'm alone?"

And Zelda began to sob. She felt silly, stupid, melodramatic. She knew her aunt had bigger problems trying to keep their fragile family together, bigger than Zelda's old boyfriend dying, but she couldn't help it. She had held it in for years and she still felt as empty and cold as she had when she left.

"What about Asa, darling?"

"Auntie, I tried! I don't love him! That's the point! I am never going to be able to love anyone ever again! Manfred was the only person I will ever love!" Her aunt took her hands.

"Zelda, do you remember why you came here? Before you got sidetracked by meeting Alice, seeing Asa again, coming here, reconciling with Emma Tolly and Tancred Torsson?" Zelda looked at her hands.

"I'm afraid of it, Auntie. I'm afraid of his ghost. I'm afraid he's still angry and vengeful. I'm afraid I'll miss him terribly all over again." Her aunt locked eyes with her.

"I think today is the day you finally have to do it. There's no point in you being here, no point in having left your life in the States. You have to go to Bloor's today. Stop by the cemetery, as well. And visit your father." Zelda looked at her, clearly confused.

"Why do I have to do all of that?" Dora smiled.

"I'm clairvoyant. That means I get to know and you don't." She hugged Zelda.

"Thank you for your help. You know what you have to do so that you'll be free to do this." Zelda finally accepted it. She nodded, and went up to bed.

She needed sleep, for she had something to do in the morning.

She slept deeply, but dreams troubled her the whole night. The dreams of running, the earsplitting sounds of bones breaking and Beth screaming filling her ears, the beautiful dreams of her and Manfred's last few moments together, happy, and then Manfred would wither away.

She awoke at eleven AM and showered. She tried to prolong the rest of the morning as much as possible.

She still didn't want to face it. She still didn't think she could. But she had to.

She was dismayed when she found that she had only spent 35 minutes getting ready. She pulled on her coat, slowly, and walked outside. Alice was outside having a cigarette.

"Where are you going?" She asked. Zelda looked at her long and hard.

"I suppose you should come, so I can explain this all to you."

On the long walk back to her old home, Zelda explained her early childhood to Alice.

"My father was rather old when I was finally born. My mother had struggled with infertility throughout their marriage, and all the other times she did get pregnant, she miscarried. Needless to say, I was their little miracle. The only downside was that I was a girl. But Daddy trained me to be the best telekinetic in the country. Daddy trained me not to feel any pain. I loved my father, you know. I was being groomed to take over his business, and groomed to marry Manfred Bloor, who I had not met yet but being a headstrong, tomboyish little girl I thought he was awful." She continued talking about vacations from years ago, the soccer ball she used to play with, telekinesis lessons with her father...

...and then, they reached the house. Zelda was nervous. If she knocked on the door, more than likely, Lila would open it. And she would have to deal with that. She looked at Alice.

"If anything happens to me in there, I'm going to telekinetically break all the windows. When that happens, burn the house down. I don't care if you think I'm alive in there, if I'm breaking the windows I'm probably dead anyway." Alice swallowed hard, but nodded. Zelda took a deep breath and rapped on the door in the most inoffensive manner she could.

Just as she expected, a pretty young woman opened the door, cigarette in hand, and looked at her disdainfully.

"Who let you through the lawn?" She said with a mean snicker.

"Lila, I mean no harm toward you. I don't want anything to do with you. I need to speak with my father." Lila laughed.

"He's not _your_ father anymore, darling." She poked Zelda's cheek with a long, hot pink acryllic nail.

"He's Sammy's father. You don't exist to him anymore, not since you ran off because you couldn't help your freak friends anymore." She laughed again, her laugh sounding like glass breaking. Zelda sneered.

"We're only freaks until you're too fucking lazy to get something across the room and make Daddy or one of the maids get it for you. You're fucking pathetic." Without warning, she was slapped across the face.

"Get out, nobody here wants to see you." Zelda's anger and impatience rose.

"Lila, if you don't let me through the door, I'm going to destroyed your house without touching a thing. Oh wait, it's not your house. It's my _mother's_ house." Lila grabbed Zelda by the top of her head.

"You won't do any such thing." Zelda was no longer looking at Lila, rather, she was looking behind Lila, at a china cabinet.

"That wasn't there before, Lila." She said quietly, trying to concentrate more on the cabinet, which began to teeter back and forth. Lila snarled at her, and then looked back at the teetering china cabinet.

"I will rip your hair out of your scalp, runt."

"I'd like to see you try it, slut."

"At least _I_ gave your father a son."

"That's not going to save your china cabinet." And with a final push, the china cabinet came down, everything inside shattering loudly, broken glass all over the floor. Zelda smirked. Lila let go of her immediately and ran to pick up everything she could. Realizing that there would be no reasoning with Lila, Zelda took a chance and ran across the living room toward the stairs. Lila, hands and knees bleeding from the broken glass, grabbed Zelda by the foot. Zelda panicked, but managed to slip her foot out of her shoe and run up the stairs to her father's bedroom. When she bounded inside, she locked the door behind her and slid against the door.

She would probably have to wait here for several hours. Lila would come bang on the door, perhaps call authorities, but she figured Lila was too stupid to think that far ahead. Her father never took a day off from work.

Well, you could imagine her shock when she looked up at her father's bed, and there he was, looking about twenty years older than Zelda thought he should.

_No, this is not my father._

Still...

"Daddy?" All of a sudden, Zelda was ten years old again, about to go to Bloor's. Zelda was fifteen years old again, telling her father that she and Manfred weren't anything. Zelda was seventeen years old again, making the heartbreaking decision to leave her father behind.

Her father could barely lift his head, but Alfons Dobinski looked up at his now twenty-three year old daughter for the first time in six years.

"Zelda." The room was dim, messy, decrepit. She moved closer to her father.

"Yes, Daddy. I'm here." He looked old, sickly, not one bit the big, booming, powerful man he used to be. She sat on the bed. There was a long silence, only permeated by her father's hacking coughs.

"Zelda, I am so thankful you've come here." Alfons said wistfully, finally. She noticed that at this point, her father was silently crying.

"Dad, I'm sorry. For everything." He shook his head, though he had great trouble with it.

"Too young. Too scared." He could barely speak. Zelda didn't know what to do.

"You are so beautiful now." He glanced at her hand. "Yet unmarried?" Zelda was crying now, too. She couldn't disappoint him.

"Oh, Daddy, I just leave my ring at home when I go to work. My hands often get dirty, and the ring is very nice." She was the consummate liar at last. The one Manfred wanted her to be...

Her father smiled.

"It is good that you could overcome Manfred." Zelda almost sobbed at that, but had to keep composure. For her father's sake.

"Daddy, are you sick?" She asked, eager to change the subject. He laughed mirthlessly.

"Poisoned, I think. Lila. Bad woman." Zelda shrieked.

"I'll kill her, Daddy. I swear it."

"No, no. None of that." He coughed, expelling a red mist. "Zelda, I am dying." Zelda couldn't believe it. Would _everything_ be taken from her?

"I have very little time left." Zelda shook her head.

"No, Dad, please don't say that." She said, her voice shaking.

"It's true. She's trying to change my will. Nobody knows where the will is but me. And nobody knows you are here, correct?"

"Auntie Dora does." There was a lump in her throat as she remembered...

"Daddy, why didn't you let Auntie Dora go to the funeral?" The old man looked sad at this question.

"Anger. Hatred. Very bad things. I'm sorry, Zelda. Sorry for you and your mother. Sorry Lila destroyed everything." Zelda nodded.

"I forgive you." She smiled. "You aren't dying." He nodded.

"Arsenic. Small doses. You do not speak to Auntie Dora of these things." Zelda nodded.

"What do you want me to do, Dad?" He pointed at a dresser drawer.

"Will is there. Inside fake bottom. There is a keyhole in the back." A feeble hand reached into his pocket, procuring a key.

"You take will. What you do after that is up to you. The baby is out with the nanny." Zelda's eyes widened.

"But what about you?" He laughed sadly.

"I am paying tribute for Elisabeth's death." Zelda closed her eyes.

"Daddy..." She took his hands. "All right, Dad, if that's really what you want." She took the key and opened the drawer. She felt around the drawer for the keyhole, and unlocked the fake bottom, where the will sat. Three words, not counting the signature and all the flowery crests on the paper.

_All to Zelda._

"Dad, I love you." Alfons Dobinski smiled, and then said what would be his last words.

"I love you, Zelda. Now show me that I taught you something worthwhile." She grinned.

One by one, all the drawers of the dresser flew out and empty themselves. The lamp on the nightstand flew against the wall with a crash. She took one last look at her father, fully forgiving him, and blew the door off the hinges. Lila's screaming could be heard from the parlor, and at every step Zelda pulled a stair from the floor, collapsing the staircase as she ran. She ran to the kitchen next, thoroughly destroying everything inside. She threw a frozen dinner sitting on the counter, probably laced with arsenic, into the oven, put the oven up to 500 degrees, and slammed the door. Lila had followed her.

"What the _hell_ do you think you're doing, brat?" Zelda noticed the baby's rattle on the table and pocketed it.

"I DON'T THINK THAT BELONGS TO YOU, YOU IMPERTINENT LITTLE BITCH!" Zelda threw knives at her next, not to kill her, only to trap her in the kitchen. She ran into the parlor, and every expensive thing inside turned to dust and broken glass. Finally, she looked outside, where Alice was still standing, probably wondering what the commotion was but unable to do anything until Zelda gave a signal. With a maniacal smile, Zelda looked at her "stepmother".

"I'm going to give you some practice burning in hell, whore." With a final, definite push of her mind's inner strength, all of the windows in the house burst simultaneously. Alice grinned and ran around to the back of the house. If she was going to commit arson, she'd better do it right. She pulled out one cigarette and lit it, dropping it on the ground. Then, the box of cigarettes. Then, a lighter that she never really used but still liked to carry. Finally, she put her hands on the back wall of the house.

"Go." And the house burst into flames. She heard screaming from inside.

"Oh, _shit._ Zelda's inside." She ran around to the front to try to get Zelda out before the fire spread, but Zelda was already on the front lawn, holding a piece of paper, sweaty, and covered in blood and soot. Alice looked dazed.

"What the hell happen-"

"LET'S GO!" Zelda bellowed, and she took Alice's hands and ran through several backyards, praying that nobody saw them. When Zelda felt safe, close to the city, they slowed down. Alice turned to her.

"What. The fuck. Was _that_ about?" Zelda shook her head.

"I'll explain later. Basically, my stepmother poisoned my father and he told me to destroy the place." Alice nodded.

"Uh-huh. You know, sometimes I wonder why the hell I'm traveling with you. Fuckin' Asa just told me what his endowment was last week. The fuck, how am I supposed to deal with that? And how come he hasn't been changing...fucking fish people, metal shops, almost being killed by some jackass in a book store...and now I just fucking committed arson. And for _what?_ WHY THE FUCK ARE WE HERE?" Zelda turned to her.

"I'll tell you mine and Manfred's story when it becomes less raw. Right now I have to go to Bloor's." Zelda seemed like she was in some sort of trance as they walked in the city toward the ancient building.

She smirked when she saw the firetrucks headed toward her house. Alice turned to Zelda.

"That woman, your stepmom. She smoked, right? Please tell me she smoked." Zelda remembered that Lila had opened the door with a cigarette in her hand.

"Yes. Yes, she did." Alice breathed a sigh of relief, and they just started to laugh. They laughed for a long time, so hard they couldn't breathe. It was a hearty laughter, a sincere laughter, but still a nervous laughter at the magnitude of what they'd done. Alice all of a sudden stopped.

"Zelda, are we bad people?" Zelda turned to her.

"Loaded question. I don't even know if I'm a bad person anymore. I probably am." Alice shook her head.

"I don't think there's any such thing as a good person, to be quite honest." The magnitude of the statement left them in silence during most of the walk through the city. Then, Alice spoke.

"You never told me why we were coming here." Zelda rolled her eyes.

"What, did you forget again? I told you, I need to pick up my dead boyfriend's stuff. Stuff that Dr. Saltweather, the headmaster at Bloor's, doesn't want in the room anymore. They're going to completely block off the room after I'm done in there." Alice nodded.

"Yeah, I get that part. But why? How did he die? Who is he, even? I'm guessing that's who Manfred is, but what exactly happened?" Zelda took a deep breath.

"Well, to start off, I'm descended from an African magician called the Red King, who lived 900 years ago. Alice laughed.

"No shit, man. That's crazy. Is that how you're telekinetic?" Zelda nodded.

"Well, the Red King had ten children. I'm descended from Olga. Long story short, Borlath, who was Manfred's ancestor, was a bit of a violent brute, and the goody two-shoes siblings wouldn't stand for it. A count called Harken Badlock had turned five of the siblings evil or something. Then there was a battle, but we've all been pretty pissed at each other for the last nine centuries. I don't know or care about any of that. All I know is that when I was born, I was born telekinetic because of Olga, one of the Red King's daughters. And, as you already know, Daddy tapped into those powers, bringing me to my fullest potential." They could see Bloor's in the distance.

"So, naturally, when I first started attending Bloor's, when I was eleven, I was already kind of a big deal. All endowed children, past and present, go to Bloor's. There are three departments." Zelda held up her fingers. "Art. Drama. Music. Well, the headmaster, Dr. Bloor, had a son a year older than me. Manfred. My dad was set on me getting to know him. I didn't really want to, but we were both in the drama department and had a lot of classes together because we were in the same grade level, cause I'm a genius." Alice laughed.

"Shut up, I'm serious. Anyway, Manfred and I had French, History, and English together. Well, we didn't really pay attention to each other in French or History, but he really got my attention in English. He could write, and he spoke as well as he wrote, even when he was a kid. Needless to say, I was immediately attracted." She laughed.

"I became friends with him, but for the most part it was an unrequited love at least until we were older. We met Asa the year after and although he kind of looked like our lackey on the outside, we were bonded together by this force I can't even describe."

"All right, now skip to the part where Manfred's your boyfriend. I think we're getting close." Zelda laughed again.

"Well, shortly before Charlie Bone started going to Bloor's, I got detention from Dr. Saltweather for pushing a kid into a wall with my telekinesis. I was fifteen. Manfred and I had been friends for a long time now, and now that I finally had detention we could hang out outside of school, because he very rarely left the academy and at Bloor's, if you got detention you had to stay an extra day. So we explored a bit, all of the rooms that students didn't usually go to, the Ruins on the grounds, everywhere Manfred and I could think of. Then, finally, he took me to his room." Alice gasped.

"Aw man." Zelda shook her head.

"No, it wasn't like that. He just wanted me to see it. It was very dark, though he didn't like it. It was also drafty, since he had trouble closing the window. But all over the place, he had decorated it with pictures of famous writers. Melville, Huxley, Orwell, and more. I was so impressed. On the wall above his bed, however, was a picture of him and I from a trip to a play with the drama department. I asked him why it was there, and he recited a poem he had written for me."

"Awwww." Alice gushed.

"He was very good at what he did. He kept all of it hidden from everyone but me and Asa. So, that was the beginning of us dating, and very shortly after, Charlie Bone came to school."

"Who's that?" Zelda sighed.

"Just a child caught up in a war between adults. Anyway, long story short, I became Manfred's little battle bitch for a while, and then I slowly began to realize that Manfred wasn't worth losing my integrity or doing all these awful things. So I ran. And then he died." Alice nodded.

"How did that happen?"

"Manfred's great-grandfather fell down the stairs and landed on him, breaking his spine." Alice grimaced.

"Ouch." Zelda nodded, trying hard not to cry.

"Yeah." She said thickly.

"So. Did you love him?" Zelda laughed.

"With all of me. We did everything together. We wrote the senior play together. We attacked small children together. We ate together. We slept together sometimes. Everything, Alice. He meant everything to me. I don't know if I meant anything to him." Alice patted her shoulder.

"I'm sure he did, Zelda. You're a gem." Zelda laughed, holding back her tears.

She would have to save them.

When they finally reached Bloor's, Zelda could hardly believe that it was really the dark, decrepit school she had gone to as a child. The place was certainly cleaner, at the very least. She saw Billy Raven, who was tall and scrawny now, but he quickly darted away. Zelda sighed. Everyone thought she was a monster.

Was she a monster? She had just burned down a house, killing two people inside. Granted, one of them was dying anyway and the other one was a bitch, but she still shouldn't have done it. And she shouldn't have solicited Alice's help. Nevertheless, she shook these thoughts out of her mind as she walked through the doors. She quickly told the new groundskeeper who she was before she was dragged out, and she walked all the way up to Dr. Saltweather's office and briefly spoke to him. She learned that Mr. and Mrs. Bloor had gone away, to places unknown. She learned where Manfred was buried, and she said thank you. She learned so many things from Dr. Saltweather. And she said thank you every time he told her something.

He told her where the key to the room was. She thanked him from the bottom of her heart and retrieved it, Alice in tow. A silent Alice, for once, even though a silent Alice was an unnerving Alice. She slowly trudged up to the room in the tower and unlocked the door, taking a deep breath as she walked in.

Everything had been seemingly untouched by anyone. The bed was neatly made, the shelves were all in order even if they were a bit dusty. The pictures of the writers were still there. Everything was in place. The corner, however, was what made her finally lose it.

In the corner there was a small shrine to Manfred. The endowed kids, it looked like, made a small memorial, even though he had treated them so horrendously. She rolled her eyes a bit as she noticed there was no contribution from Tancred Torrsson, but the rest of them had pulled together the small memorial. She walked over and looked at it, smiling. Each of them had written a letter of forgiveness and their own apologies. They were really good kids after all. Zelda looked at Alice and then back at the room.

"I don't really want to take anything." She said softly through her tears, which were subsiding. "But wait." She walked over serenely and took the picture of them from the drama class trip off the wall, as well as the pictures of the writers. And the poem. She went into the desk drawer and got the poem. She turned to Alice, her eyes watery.

"Okay, we can go."

The walk down out of Bloor's was silent. Billy Raven had finally worked up enough courage to walk over and say hi, Una Ominous's hand in his. She said hi back curtly, and that it was oh-so-nice seeing them, and then she continued on in silence. Alice had tried to speak a few times, but closed her mouth as quickly as she had opened it. Finally, they reached the cemetery and Alice finally spoke.

"I'll wait outside." And Zelda nodded, glad that Alice understood.

She walked over six rows and three columns to where Dr. Saltweather said Manfred was buried. She clicked her tongue at the small, pitiful grave. Surely the Bloors could afford more for him? She read the stone to herself, sighing unapprovingly.

_Manfred Bloor. 1985-2004. Loving son, accomplished teaching assistant, cut down too young._

It was so curt, so unemotional, that Zelda nearly screamed and kicked it when she read it. Cut down too young her left tit. Loving son, her right. And accomplished teaching assistant thrown on there as if it was an afterthought, as if they had nothing else to say about their son. They didn't know him, she thought bitterly, so how could they put anything else on there? She grimaced as she realized she hadn't brought flowers, and made a mental note to get some for the next time she came down. If there was a next time, if she didn't hang herself immediately after this time. The cold wind blew around her, and for one delusional moment she considered moving close to Manfred's burial plot for warmth, as if his decomposing, decaying body wasn't stone cold in the ground. She took a deep breath, and finally spoke.

"You know something, it took a lot out of me to come and finally face you today, you great prat." She snapped. "But it was something I had to do. An obligation, really. I know you know what those are. You always had obligations to your family, to your allies, to yourself. But never to me, it would seem." Her voice shook.

"Never to me, or Asa, or anyone who wasn't a knuckledragging, shitkicking piece of dirt, right? Always to your great-grandfather. Always to your father. Always to some fucking 900 year old count. But never to people who really mattered, eh, Manfred?

"When they told me your spine was broken, I laughed so hard I couldn't fucking breathe. A broken spine? What spine? Since when did Manfred Bloor have a spine? I laughed heartily, because you have no spine. You never had a spine, because if you did you would have left them with me, like I had asked you. You wouldn't have stayed with them, you would have helped your best friend instead of hurting him." She bit her lip hard.

"You wouldn't have killed a fourteen year old girl to get back at me if you had a spine, because there was nothing to get back at. Ha. I laugh again. You have no spine.

"But still, I love you. I always loved you, even when we were kids and I hated you, I loved you. Because everything about you intrigued me. Your long, dark hair. Your coal black eyes. Your hypnotism. I think you probably had to have hypnotized me into loving a git like you, but that's beside the point." She laughed.

"I miss us. I miss you. I miss writing all the plays and exploring the castle and you fucking my brains out and being young and being unafraid and thinking that Ezekiel Bloor was going to give us everything but we instead had nothing and I think you knew that. But Manfred Bloor never admitted to being wrong, no siree bob." She chuckled again, tears streaming down her face.

"I wish I had seen you one more time. I wish I could have told you that I didn't "fucking hate you and your black soul and everything you stand for and your face and your favorite writer" and that those were just words I said because I was angry that you chose them over me. I wish I could have been held by you, because now I don't have anybody. Nobody's damaged like the two of us were, Manfred. I just..." She looked up at the sky, where some stereotypical sign would show up if this was a movie. But it wasn't a movie. She begged for the wind to blow around her again so that she could pretend it was Manfred caressing her cheek from heaven, even though she was pretty sure people who locked up innocent kids went to hell, if there was a heaven or a hell, for that matter. When nothing occurred, she finally turned away.

"Can't even come be here for me one more time, can you?" She said solemnly, shaking her head. She was starting to walk away before she tripped over something.

It was a cat. But it wasn't just any cat. Zelda smiled.

"Hello, Leo." She said fondly, yet she was afraid that the cat might attack her since she was apparently some evil monster. What a crock of shit, she thought, defining one person by their ancestor. But the cat did not repel her. It merely rubbed against her legs. Soon, his brothers joined him, and Zelda sat down and let them lay on her and comfort her. She sighed.

"I'm pretty sure you can do anything except bring him back." She said solemnly. "But I think I'm okay with that now." She said, shuddering a bit. She went back to the grave and placed the pictures of the writers on it, making sure they didn't blow away by covering them with dirt and rocks. To her it didn't matter how they looked, only that they were with him. She smiled, the last few tears fell down her cheek, the cats by her side.

"Now you can be who you wanted to be all along, Manfred. Brilliant." She took a deep breath and turned back around, the cats never leaving her side. She finally stepped out, lighting a cigarette and turning to Alice with a watery smile.

"Let's go." Alice smiled back.

"Of course. You're okay, right?"

"Yeah..." They started their trek back, Alice talking about her own life and how excited she was to be going back to normal school, and Zelda nodding and smiling and feeling whole again.

End.

This took me 4 months to finish. That's an unusually lengthy time for me to write a fanfic. It's also quite odd that I actually finished it in the first place, in my opinion. This is, without a doubt, the best thing I've ever written, in my humble opinion. I hope you all enjoyed it. I hope you took the time to read it. This is my last ever fanfic, so I wanted to make it count. Peace out.


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